Walterboro, South Carolina

We awoke at 6 am to another hot and sunny day in Tampa and were all ready to get going by 7 am. We had planned to pack up the Phaeton and move it out to the main parking lot at Rally Park so I could have the toad all hooked up and ready to go for when our driver showed up. Not "our" driver in the chauffeur sense of the word, but our driver who would do the out of state delivery to Valdosta, GA for us, so we wouldn't have to pay the Florida state sales tax. Anyway, Jack, showed up about 30 minutes early, so we left right around 7:30 am, which suited us just fine. Jack was the same driver we had for our Bounder delivery back in May 2007. What a great guy and so knowledgeable too. I was a sponge and soaked up any advice he chose to share. Chris sat on the sofa reading her book. We were in Valdosta before noon and on our way to Brunswick, GA on I-95 after seeing a Notary Public and a quick bit of lunch. We pulled into the Flying J at Brunswick, where we were originally going to spend the night, at 2:30 pm, but decided to push on to Walterboro, SC instead. Skies were blue, so why not.
Our phaeton drives like a dream. Much quieter and smoother running than our Bounder with very nice captain and co-pilot seats. I think the tag axle makes it handle much better on the highway. We averaged 60 mph most of the way and never budged at all when semis went by us in either direction.

We hit some serious thunderstorms in Savanah, GA as you can see from the pictures above. Temperatures must have dropped at least 20F because of the rain. It rained so hard, it washed off all the kamikaze love bugs that had impaled themselves all over our windshield in Florida. Better than a car wash or pressure washer.

So here we are back at the Super Walmart at exit 57. Only three RVs here tonight. Supper is done and we get to watch some satellite TV and some season finales before bed. We'll make it to the Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails park east of Richmond, VA tomorrow night and spend a few days in that area before pushing on into Pennsylvania.

Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries

A trip into Orlando International airport yesterday to pick up Chris for a short visit. She even arrived early. Must have been a quicker flight than normal, likely because she was riding on all that thin, Canadian cold air that the Florida weather guys have been complaining about for the last few days! Like we have any control over the weather! Traffic was bad on the way in and again on the way home but we managed alright. We enjoy taking the scenic highway for most of the return trip to Sebring and staying off I4 and US27. I saw this old Ford on the road on my way into Orlando. Not sure what year it was, but it looked to be in great shape and was hauling this homemade trailer with only a one wheel axle.

Of course we had to make our usual stop at Five Guys before heading back to Sebring. I managed to take a some quick pictures of our burgers. And yes....they were yummy! Two loaded burgers with all the fixings, a mountain of fries and drinks for $20. Not bad. And for those of you wondering, that was both lunch and supper for us today!

Here we see sacks of Idaho potatoes waiting to be consumed. Wonder how many bags of potatoes Five Guys would go through in a week?

Weather is warming up. Back into the mid 70s for the next week or so. Life is good......:)

Cold Here!!!!

It got down to 49F in the motorhome last night. I pulled the electric space heater into the rear of the motorhome and closed off the front area. Toasty warm in no time. Seriously though, it was down into the upper 30sF in Sebring last night and may even dip below freezing tonight. I know it is still much warmer than what Ottawa is experiencing these days but it is still cool here after recent day in the 80sF. There....I feel better.

A few brave people came out for pickleball this morning but only a few wore shorts. Most of us were in long sleeves and sweat pants. We still had some great games.

I went for a few more photos this afternoon. Back to the bridge where Chris and I saw the gators the other day. Guess it was too cold for the gators too because there were none to be seen. Instead, I busied myself taking pictures of some ibises and an egret near the bridge. They were very cooperative subjects for almost an hour. I used my 70-200 mm lens with a 1.4 extender and had my 5D2 on a monopod for most of these shots.
I love the reflections of the trees in the water. I learned to be patient this afternoon and wait for the right shot. It is still hard to get tack sharp focus on a moving subject though, even with a moderate shutter speed, especially with a zoom lens. The slightest flinch or camera shake is enough to blur an image. Learning every day.Let me know what you think of the photographs by leaving a comment or clicking on the star ratings at the bottom of this post.

Windy and Cooler

Weather has been a little tempermental lately. Rain and wind for much of yesterday but things cleared off last night. I saw these clouds and sunrise out our front window this morning. Wasn't sure what it was going to do today so I left the awnings in until this afternoon when it cleared up and the wind died down.

Little pickleball this morning which is always an adventure with the wind blowing. No swim though because they decided to leave the cover on the pool until later today. See it isn't always sunny in Florida....just most of the time.

Chris tells me she managed to get to her appointments today even with the bus strike in Ottawa. Also got a little Christmas shopping done. Wonder what I got........huh, huh? Thanks Kawal for lending her your car. She'll gas it up once she figures out where you hide the gas cap.

Hoping to get out for a little night photography this evening. The local hospital is just down the road and it is lit up beautifully at night.

Tornado Watch

Tanglewood awoke to dark, ominous skies this morning with gusting winds. Definitely no pickleball or swimming on the agenda today. Buddy and I went for our morning stroll and saw several people taking down their awnings and storing outside things away. Local TV weather issued a tornando watch until about 2 pm, so I decided to take down our awnings and store everything. I even took my bike apart and put it in the back of the Vue. No point in leaving it outside to get soaked. The skies opened up around 10 am and it basically rained steady until mid afternoon. Buddy and I hunkered down and watched the local weather but thankfully, no actual tornados were reported.

While inside and cooped up, I took some pictures of Buddy at 6400 ISO with my new camera, just to see how the higher ISO settings worked. I think this shot worked out pretty well, all things considered. No flash was used, available light only.

Rain + Wind Outside = Lightroom 2 Inside

Yesterday was stormy in Sebring. The wind was out of the south meaning it was blowing right on our sun shade which hangs from and runs the length of our awning. It trapped the wind and I was fearful the extra strain on the awning arms might damage the awning so I took it down while the wind blew and the rain fell. In fact, I packed up and stowed most of the outside things away in our bins and retracted the awning as well. I also ran my bicycle around to the leeward side of the motorhome and put it under the dining room awning to stay out of the rain. That worked pretty well actually. Only one day of wet weather though. This morning was sunny and warm again, so I restrung our sunshade and dragged things out of the bins again. Better safe than sorry and certainly no point in risking damage from the storm.

Yesterday's weather gave me a chance to work on my photography workflow in Lightroom 2. I've been watching lots of tutorial videos online and just had to give it a try. This software is amazing. I worked on two of my favourite photographs for about 30 minutes each and I think they turned out quite well.

Chris is back to work in Ottawa and working her last block of shifts before coming back to Sebring at the end of this week. The bottom photo is of my daughter Lindsay. Caught her shopping for hats with Chris at Niagara Falls last spring. Happy ??th birthday princess! Let me know what you think of these two.....photographs (of course) by leaving a comment.

Frikkin' Snow!!!

Well, we received about 4 inches of heavy wet snow last night and then the temperature dropped which promptly turned all the snow into ice cold cement. Our poor Saturn Vue has never experienced snow before because it was either in warmer climates or else parked in the garage. Being parked on the street last night left it as one sorry, frozen Saturn ice cube this morning when I got up to get Chris from the hospital following nightshift. I'd forgotten how numb my fingers get when scrapping windows. Our 14 yr old Bichon Frise was a little baffled too with all the white stuff. He hasn't seen snow since in a couple of years.

Looks like we'll be able to hit the road tomorrow as planned. Roads are plowed and warmer temperatures are forecasted, so hopefully we'll see bare and dry roads for most of our drive south. Freightliner Ottawa is not far from where we live and Hwy 417 and they are letting me move the motorhome from the farm into their yard for the night. I'll be able to make a few runs back and forth later today as well. Not much else to do really. I want to fuel up with diesel and propane on the way in this afternoon and also check my tire pressures, so we'll be all ready to go in the morning. Hoping to be on the road by 9 am at the latest.

I ducked out for a few photos in the snow this morning. This old train looked quite striking with the white snow on its black exterior. Shot this with a Canon 17-40 wide angle zoom I picked up yesterday. Black and white too!

Chickadee

Finally managed to get a good shot of a chickadee nibbling at the suet block we put out the other day. I think it turned out quite well.

Local weather forecast is not looking good for the next few days. There is a winter storm watch in effect for Tuesday night and all day Wednesday with 10-30 cms (4-12 inches) of snow in the forecast. We are planning to leave Thursday morning but may leave on Friday instead if conditions are bad. We have a few days to play with on the way south, so a day one way or the other won't be a problem.

I'm Watching You!!

My niece's dog, Emma. Thought the crop works quite well.

Chrs is off to see the doctor this morning while I run the car in for service. Our landlord has agreed to lets us keep Buddy in the cave until we leave, so that will save us having to run back and forth to the farm every day.

Local weather man mentioned a four letter word last night.........S-N-O-W!!!!

Rideau Locks

Chris working her last night shift last night so I got up early in order to get downtown for some early morning photography before picking her up. There I was with backpack, tripod and a large coffee, trapsing through the still dark streets of Bytown towards the Champlain Monument. Sunrise was a 6:54 am today and it was incredible. I had wanted to go back and get a shot of the Rideau Locks emptying into the Ottawa River once the leaves had changed colour. What do you think?

The next photograph looks south with the glass prism tower of the National Art Gallery in the upper left and the blurred tail lights of morning rush hour traffic coming into Ottawa from Gatineau on the Quebec side. I thought the sunrise also highlighted the bench seats nicely. Unfortunately the sky is a little blown out though.
We are experiencing fantastic early fall weather in Ottawa right now. Temps are still in the mid 20s C or 70s F during the day and still above freezing at night. Still lots of time for cycling, running and swimming before the cooler weather sets in.

Tandem Cycling

This last week has been very busy for us. There has been lots of activity and interest in our house. Seems like there are showings for 2-3 hours every day. We have to leave the house during the showings which is a bit of a pain at times but certainly nothing we can't handle. On the plus side....Casey's basement 'pit' or 'dungeon' has never looked cleaner. Yahoo!

Chris received her final reflexology written exam marks and certification in the mail. She aced the written exam to go along with her practical exam which she did in London back in mid May. She is pretty happy and we are all very proud of her. She was a little worried about the written exam apparently, but thankfully that was all for not. Atta Girl!!! She also has an interview at CHEO for a nursing job in Pediatrics ICU tomorrow morning, so hopefully everything goes well in that regard too.

Weather has been a mixed bag in Ottawa this past week. Some rain every day and relatively cool temperatures for this time of year.......until yesterday! We reached 31C yesterday and the humidex put temps closer to 40C. We had to be out of the house for 3 hours for another showing so we took our first spin of the year on our tandem bicycle. We enjoyed a nice 40 km ride out east and south of Orleans making sure we stopped for coffee in Navan on the way back. Riding with a tailwind was fabulous but we battled a pretty stiff headwind coming back. It was still a wonderful afternoon.

Sunday, we had no house showings thankfully. We decided to ride the bike again and headed into the Byward Market via the Eastern Parkway from Blackburn Hamlet. The Parkway is closed off to traffic every Sunday between Victoria Day and Labour Day, courtesy of Alcatel. We battled another headwind on our way into the Market but had a great tailwind on the way back. On the way in we received two requests for house showings. That meant we had to be out of the house and on the bike a little longer than we had planned. We decided to go to the Empire Grill in Byward Market and had a wonderful brunch sitting outside under the umbrellas watching all kinds of people wander by.

Then back on the bike so we could retrace our steps home. We were a little pooped going up the Bearbrook Hill into Blackburn Hamlet. We passed a fellow on a road bike before we started up the hill but he returned the favour as we crawled up the hill on our tandem. With my promise of an ice cold cappucino for Chris at Tim Horton's though, we managed to blow by him on the downhill into town. He tried to sprint and stay ahead of us, but it is pretty hard to stay ahead of heavy tandem with a full head of steam on a downhill. We all had a good laugh as we passed him again. Him included!

Cold in Ontario

Weather has been pretty cool and wet since we crossed the border. Don't think we have seen one day over 70F yet! Next year we figure on staying south until the end of May. We are still wearing shorts and sandals most of the time, but every now and then we have to throw on socks and runners. Warmer weather forecasted for this weekend though.

We have been out regularly running and walking along the Ottawa River. With warmer weather this weekend, we shall have our tandem bicycle out for sure.

Been doing lots of chores around the house getting it ready to sell. Housing market is quite good here and our CDN$ seems to be on a bit of a roll as well. This week we are both spending time at the dentist and also getting new eye glasses. Thought we would try the transition lenses this time.

Chris has been out to several hospitals with her resume. I don't expect she will be waiting long. We are also going to stop in at the US embassy to see what the correct steps to follow are in order for her to work in the USA this winter. There is lots of work in the USA for Canadian nurses. It is just a matter of jumping through the right hoops.

Need to get back out to where our motorhome is stored sometime this week as well so we can vacuum out the inside and prepare it for inside storage. I posted a message about my failed left rear signal and brake light on the Bounder Diesel Yahoo Group. One reader replied that there is a fuse panel in the outside electrical bay worth checking. Hoping that will be an easy fix.

Heading Home Soon

Weather has been miserable for the last two days. Rain and cold until today when the sun finally came out and the temps crept up slowly.

We spent the day in London. Chris passed her reflexology practical test with flying colours. She goes back for her final written exam tomorrow and will then receive her certification. Way to go Chris!!!!

I went to Future Shop and picked up a Logitech Harmony 670 Universal Remote Control on sale. We met some full-timers here in the park yesterday and they swear by their Harmony. The 670 was on sale for $70 off . Set up was very easy and done over the Internet. We now have three televisions, DVD player and our satellite receiver all running off one remote now instead of the five remotes we had been uisng. Pretty neat. Great space saver.

We'll head for home on Thursday morning and may stop in Marmora to see friends there. Should be back in Ottawa sometime Friday if all goes as planned. There is some weather moving in so that may delay things too. We'll have to see.

Niagara Lazy Lakes

We were on our way early again on Wednesday morning. As usual, I spent some time the previous evening with Microsoft Streets and Trips, planning our route. Our Garmin Nuvi 760 is quite good at getting us to our destination, but MST is easier for laying out long drives because it lets one see the whole trip laid out on a larger map. Changes to any route are just a simple click and drag with the mouse. The Garmin imports all our destinations from MST no problem, but not the route. It plans that on its own, based on user preferred setting, ie no toll roads, no U turns, no traffic, etc. I found it was much easier and quicker using the interstates to get us into NY state, even though it was a little longer. Bottom line, yesterday's drive was about 6.5 hours on fairly flat and well maintained, multi lane roads instead of 5.5 hours through some pretty hilly areas of rural Pennsylvania.

Maintenance is always an issue with motorhomes. Our usual practice, once we have the Saturn hooked up, is for us to check all our lights, turn signals, brakes, etc to make sure all are in proper working order. Yesterday, one brake light on the motorhome was not working. We figured it was a bad bulb or fuse. With no spares on hand, we departed anyway and stopped at the first service plaza on I-70. While Chris went to Starbucks, I got out my screwdriver to remove the rear lense. Bulb was fine. Turned out just to be a bad contact is all. A quick cleaning and the bulb worked fine. Easy fix. We still have no left brake and signal light on the Saturn when it is attached to the motorhome. That has been out for a few days now. Think it is a bad diode in my Saturn's trailer lights wiring but we haven't been able to find a new one anywhere. The motorhome lights are higher than the Saturn though, so motorists have no trouble seeing them. May have to wait until we get back to Ottawa for a new diode.

So yesterday's route took us west along I-70 toward Pittsburgh, then north on I-79 to Erie before turning east on I-90 to Buffalo, NY. Not much traffic anywhere along the way until we hit Niagara Falls. Another sunny day until we got near our campground and then the rain started. This map will give you an idea where we are camped. Lazy Lakes is a very nice and well maintained campground. Sites are wide with a gravel pads and at first glance all sites are flat. We hardly needed any adjustments when we auto levelled. Partial hookups only though.

Last night, we buzzed into St Catharines to see my daughter, Lindsay for supper. That is only a 30 minute drive. The border crossing was painless, going and coming back. We enjoyed a great meal at one of her favourite restaurants, Dad's treat of course. After a quick tour of St Catharines, to see where she worked, we said our goodbyes and headed back to our campground.

Needless to say, we were both exhausted after a very long day. Oh yeah.....its still raining..........

TTN Forest Lake

We were on the road by 10 am this morning. We only had a short 200 mile drive today, so we left a little later than usual.

Most of today's drive was along I-85. We stopped at the Flying J in Blacksburg, SC to top up with diesel fuel and unleaded for the Vue. Diesel was down to $3.979/gallon ($1.05/litre), the lowest we have seen since last fall. Unleaded was $3.429/gallon ($0.905/litre). Still considerably lower than in Canada. We also checked out a Waffle House for lunch. Enough said on that one. Won't be stopping there again anytime soon.

The drive was great. Traffic was moderate and moved along quite well. We stuck around 55-57 mph and just watched the countryside roll on by, averaging a whopping 9.3 mpg!!! Not bad really when you consider how heavy we are and pulling another vehicle as well. Doesn't take long to blow through $200 or more at the pumps either and of course that will increase the further north we go. Oh well, it is still a great life! We heard truckers are doling out over $1000 per tank full these days. Ouch!!!

We arrived at Forest Lake just before 3 pm and were able to check out a bunch of different sites because the park is only half full. We found two nice sites near the pickleball courts. We couldn't get level on A-20, so we opted for A-18. As you can see from the photo, we are in a well treed site, so no Canadian satellite TV for the two days we are here. Antenna works great though, so we will survive.

The park is very well laid out among Carolina pine trees. The 2 outdoor pools are not open until Memorial Day. Too cold anyway. Last night, it got down to 36F here!!!! Brrrr!!!!!! This afternoon we were closer to 70F.

According to our Garmin Nuvi 760 we are 800 ft above sea level and our GPS coordinates are:
N 35 degrees 51.625', W 80 degrees 23.823'. Punch those numbers into Google Maps for a good idea of where we are.

Our Verizon U-720 modem works well from the confines of our motorhome. NationalAccess though, no Broadband.

Lastly, I added a traffic meter to the blog yesterday. It displays a list of where people accessing our blog are from. I thought it would be neat to see that info. Please sign our guest book too when you drop in. Repeat entries are fine. You don't need to leave an email address if you don't want to, but all comments would be greatly appreciated.

Chili in Florida

Last night was our turn to host our first potluck supper. Chris was busy most of the day making two pots of chili, rice, biscuits and three bean salad. We had to borrow a second slow cooker for the chili. As you can see from the photos, it was quite a feast. Our pickleball friends also provided, cakes, enchaladas, chip with homemade dip, three cakes, fresh fruit, etc.

We sat around for about two hours enjoying great food and great company. You will notice that everyone is wearing jackets and long pants. That is because it has cooled off considerably over the past 2 days. Day time highs have barely reached 70F with strong winds, while overnight temps were in the upper 40Fs. All that is supposed to change tomorrow thankfully.


Today was a busy day on the fitness front. We both played pickleball this morning. I also got in a quick mile swim in the pool before lunch. Then after some lunch, Dennis and I played against Rich and Larry beginning at 2 pm. They are going in a tournament soon and needed practice playing together. We had some great games in very windy conditions. It is surprising how much different the game is when the wind blows.

While we played, Chris walked out to the post office along Hwy 27 to mail a birthday card. Hwy 27 is very busy multi-lane highway. She was even honked at by two truckers while walking on the sidewalk. Good for her ego ..... and mine. That's my girl!!!

Bob and Julie, as well as Stan and Sally, head for points north tomorrow morning. Thousand Trails Orlando is clearing out as well. Lots of empty spots available now. We are already making plans for a pickleball tourney at TTN St Clair this summer. Many of our friends from Florida should be there.

You Guys Must Be Canadian......ey!

Well the bottom has dropped out of the thermometer again here in Florida. Down into the 40Fs last night and only up to a high of 68F today if we are lucky. Pretty strange because it is still sunny. Regina, Saskatchewan on the other hand, saw 26C yesterday! What's with that?

Oh yeah, and the Sens are going all the way too.............................!!!!! Not!!!! Break out the golf clubs boys. Stick a fork in 'em, they're done like dinner! Go Habs, Go!!!

We were out for our run/walk this morning. Now it was only about 52F when we left our motorhome, dressed in our usual shorts, tank tops and runners. The sun was out and it was quite pleasant, albeit a little cool. We warmed up quickly though. While we were out, we both saw this older fellow on a bicycle go by us in the park. Jeans, hoodie, touque, boots, parka, gloves, etc. He wasn't going very fast on his bike. He never said anything as he approached and passed us from behind. A few minutes later, he passed us again on his return loop. This time he approached us from the front. While approaching, he shakes his head and says, "You guys must be Canadian!" To which we replied, "How could you tell?" We both chuckled over that one.

Canadian and darn proud of it too!

Tonight is our turn to cook and invite the gang over for dinner. Chris is busy preparing her chili with homemade biscuits and three bean salad. We are expecting about 20 people under our awning tonight. It will be cool but cozy as well. And that chili will surely keep us all warm. More goodies are being brought in by the other wives as well.

Man, it's a tough life!

Fort Desoto

We checked in with our service advisor at Lazydays first thing this morning. LD will look after the a/c unit and also the body work while we head back to Peace River. Hoping they can have it all ready and done by April 4th as they have scheduled.





We headed for Fort Desoto at 10 am which is located on the southern tip of a spit of land west of the Sunshine Skyway in St Petersburg. We visited here last year and had a great time wandering along the beaches. This time around we cycled around the area from North Beach. We spent about 90 minutes cycling. It was very hot and humid but cooled off nicely by the water. There is a nice bicycle path that runs the length of the park so traffic is not a problem.

Once back in the parking lot, we secured our bikes to the roof of our Saturn and then headed off down the beach. The beaches were busy but there was still plenty of parking available. We strolled a mile or so along the beach, in and out of the water before turning around and walking back to the car. North beach was voted best beach in America in 2005 and it is easy to see why. Soft, white powder sand and the warm, shallow water of the Gulf Coast. Fabulous!



We headed off for Peace River around 3 pm and ran into the mother of all thunder storms along Hwy 64. Temp was 28C in bright sunshine and dropped to 19C in about 5 minutes once the skies opened upon us. The rain kept falling until almost 9 pm.

Jim and Jane joined us for supper at the China Buffet in Wauchula. Our treat as a thank you for their looking after Buddy on numerous occasions. Good food and great company.

Chilly Weather

The last two nights have been a little on the cool side in Florida as a huge mass of arctic air has dipped into the southern USA. Outside temps got down around 40F both nights. The first night we used the heat pump in our roof mounted rear air conditioner to keep the bedroom at 65F. We found this to be quite noisy every time the blower kicked in and it was just enough to interrupt our sleep. It also heats via the ceiling air conditioning ducts which means the carpeted floor, where Buddy sleeps, was not very warm. Last night before turning in, I switched over to propane heat for the rear of our Bounder. Much quieter and it blows warm air through the floor ducts instead. The furnace also never kicked in as often as the heat pumps did. We used our portable radiant oil heater to keep the chill off in the front area both nights.

Yesterday, we took a run over to Saturn of Osceola to get the second service done on our Saturn Vue. Less than $30 and that included a car wash as well. No complaints with that.

We got back to Thousand Trails around 3:30 pm and played pickleball until supper. Some friends from Peace River had come into the park and we enjoyed playing with them again. Its funny how often you run into people down here. Of course, many Thousand Trails members spending the winter in Florida simply run back and forth between the two TT parks at Orlando and Peace River every 2-3 weeks. They are only about 70 miles apart, so it is an easy drive. It all depends on your reservations. Since upgrading to VIP, we can go park to park with no time out of the system and also book 120 days in advance instead of the usual 90 days.

We had chili for supper last night. One of the first purchases we made for our Bounder last spring was a slow cooker. Great for cooking even while on the road. If we are on the move, we just place it in the kitchen sink while driving as our supper simmers all day. Nothing like a hot meal after a long drive.

My Toshiba Qosmio laptop is acting up a bit these days. To me it sounds like the cooling fan on the CPU is not turning as freely as it should. It squeals intermittently every now and then. Performance has not suffered at all, it is just a bit noisy is all. May be time to get it in for a cleaning somewhere.

Weather and Worms!!!

We spent yesterday around the preserve waiting for the mobile repair service to come back and finish the job on our front air conditioner. By lunch time we still hadn't heard anything so I called them. The replacement capacitor was to be ordered last Friday and here to install on Monday or Tuesday of this week. Turns out the part won't even be here until next Monday. I told the service that I was very displeased with that but there was nothing they could do about it. We'll wait to see if it shows up next Monday. I also called Lazydays in Tampa and had them add the front air conditioner to our list of service items scheduled for March 6th. They have the part in stock.

Weather warnings were the issue of the day yesterday. We swam in the morning because severe thunderstorms and heavy rain were forecasted for late in the afternoon and overnight as well. We packed up most of our outside items and also retracted our awnings waiting for the storms. Things started around 6 pm with some spectacular lightning shows well past midnight. We are not under any trees where we are, so there was no danger of a tree falling on us. Yesterday, temps were in the mid 80Fs. Today and tomorrow, we'll be lucky if we get to 60F! Think this will be a good day to do a little shopping.

We also found that Buddy does in fact have worms. Saw them in his stool yesterday morning. We managed to get him into a local vet who diagnosed tape worms. Buddy is on Front Line and Avantage now which will protect him from any further worms, ticks, fleas, etc and also help expel the tape worm over time. The vet thinks Buddy likely ingested a flea which had a tape worm in it. But there is nothing to worry about. He still has plenty of energy and does his nice little dance at meal time.